362 
APPENDIX. VI. 
and the instrument itself will not vary, though 
the notes or passages may be altered aie at 
pleasure. 28 ' 
I tried once an experiment, which might in- 
deed have possibly made some alteration in the 
tone of a bird, from what it might have been 
when the animal was at its full growth, by pro- 
curing an operator who caponised a young black- 
bird of about six weeks old; as it died, however, 
soon afterwards, and I have never repeated the 
experiment, I can only conjecture with regard 
to what might have been the ‘consequences 
of it. 
Both* Pliny and the London poulterers agree 
that a capon does not crow, which I should con- 
ceive to arise from the muscles of the larynx 
never acquiring the proper degree of strength, 
which seems to be requisite to the singing of a 
bird, from Mr. Hunter’s dissections. 
But it will perhaps be asked, why this opera- 
tion should not improve the notes of a nestling, 
as much as it is supposed to contribute to the 
creater perfection of the human Voice. 
To this I answer, that castration by no means 
insures any such consequence; for the voices 
of much the greater part of Italian eunuchs are 
so indifferent, that they have no means of pro- 
* Lib. Xs Cc. Ze 
